James Madison

Fourth State of Nation, Washington, DC, 1812-11-04

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

On our present meeting it is my first duty to invite your attention to
the providential favors which our country has experienced in the
unusual degree of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and in the rich
abundance with which the earth has rewarded the labors bestowed
on it. In the successful cultivation of other branches of industry, and
in the progress of general improvement favorable to the national
prosperity, there is just occasion also for our mutual
congratulations and thankfulness.

With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures and
vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the United
States have been forced by the perseverance of a foreign power in its
system of injustice and aggression.

Previous to its declaration it was deemed proper, as a measure of
precaution and forecast, that a considerable force should be placed in
the Michigan Territory with a general view to its security, and, in the
event of war, to such operations in the uppermost Canada as would
intercept the hostile influence of Great Britain over the savages,
obtain the command of the lake on which that part of Canada
borders, and maintain cooperating relations with such forces as might
be most conveniently employed against other parts.

Brigadier-General Hull was charged with this provisional service,
having under his command a body of troops composed of regulars and
of volunteers from the State of Ohio. Having reached his
destination after his knowledge of the war, and possessing
discretionary authority to act offensively, he passed into the
neighboring territory of the enemy with a prospect of easy and
victorious progress. The expedition, nevertheless, terminated
unfortunately, not only in a retreat to the town and fort of Detroit, but
in the surrender of both and of the gallant corps commanded by that
officer. The causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a
military tribunal.

A distinguishing feature in the operations which preceded and
followed this adverse event is the use made by the enemy of the
merciless savages under their influence. Whilst the benevolent
policy of the United States invariably recommended peace and
promoted civilization among that wretched portion of the human
race, and was making exertions to dissuade them from taking either
side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to call to his aid their
ruthless ferocity, armed with the horrors of those instruments of
carnage and torture which are known to spare neither age nor sex. In
this outrage against the laws of honorable war and against the
feelings sacred to humanity the British commanders can not resort
to a plea of retaliation, for it is committed in the face of our
example. They can not mitigate it by calling it a self-defense
against men in arms, for it embraces the most shocking butcheries
of defenseless families. Nor can it be pretended that they are not
answerable for the atrocities perpetrated, since the savages are
employed with a knowledge, and even with menaces, that their fury
could not be controlled. Such is the spectacle which the deputed
authorities of a nation boasting its religion and morality have not
been restrained from presenting to an enlightened age.

The misfortune at Detroit was not, however, without a consoling
effect. It was followed by signal proofs that the national spirit rises
according to the pressure on it. The loss of an important post and of
the brave men surrendered with it inspired everywhere new ardor and
determination. In the States and districts least remote it was no
sooner known than every citizen was ready to fly with his arms at
once to protect his brethren against the blood-thirsty savages let
loose by the enemy on an extensive frontier, and to convert a partial
calamity into a source of invigorated efforts. This patriotic zeal,
which it was necessary rather to limit than excite, has embodied an
ample force from the States of Kentucky and Ohio and from parts of
Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is placed, with the addition of a few
regulars, under the command of Brigadier-General Harrison, who
possesses the entire confidence of his fellow soldiers, among whom
are citizens, some of them volunteers in the ranks, not less
distinguished by their political stations than by their personal
merits. The greater portion of this force is proceeding in relieving
an important frontier post, and in several incidental operations
against hostile tribes of savages, rendered indispensable by the
subserviency into which they had been seduced by the enemy - a
seduction the more cruel as it could not fail to impose a necessity
of precautionary severities against those who yielded to it.

At a recent date an attack was made on a post of the enemy near
Niagara by a detachment of the regular and other forces under the
command of Major-General Van Rensselaer, of the militia of the
State of New York. The attack, it appears, was ordered in
compliance with the ardor of the troops, who executed it with
distinguished gallantry, and were for a time victorious; but not
receiving the expected support, they were compelled to yield to
reenforcements of British regulars and savages. Our loss has been
considerable, and is deeply to be lamented. That of the enemy, less
ascertained, will be the more felt, as it includes among the killed
the commanding general, who was also the governor of the Province,
and was sustained by veteran troops from unexperienced soldiers,
who must daily improve in the duties of the field.

Our expectation of gaining the command of the Lakes by the
invasion of Canada from Detroit having been disappointed,
measures were instantly taken to provide on them a naval force
superior to that of the enemy. From the talents and activity of the
officer charged with this object everything that can be done may be
expected. Should the present season not admit of complete
success, the progress made will insure for the next a naval
ascendancy where it is essential to our permanent peace with and
control over the savages.

Among the incidents to the measures of the war I am constrained to
advert to the refusal of the governors of Maine and Connecticut to furnish the
required detachments of militia toward the defense of the maritime
frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate
exposition of the provisions of the Constitution relating to the
militia. The correspondences which will be laid before you contain
the requisite information on the subject. It is obvious that if the
authority of the United States to call into service and command the
militia for the public defense can be thus frustrated, even in a state
of declared war and of course under apprehensions of invasion
preceding war, they are not one nation for the purpose most of all
requiring it, and that the public safety may have no other resource
than in those large and permanent military establishments which are
forbidden by the principles of our free government, and against the
necessity of which the militia were meant to be a constitutional
bulwark.

On the coasts and on the ocean the war has been as successful as
circumstances inseparable from its early stages could promise. Our
public ships and private cruisers, by their activity, and, where there was
occasion, by their intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the
difference between a reciprocity of captures and the long confinement
of them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has safely
reached our ports, having been much favored in it by the course
pursued by a squadron of our frigates under the command of
Commodore Rodgers, and in the instance in which skill and bravery
were more particularly tried with those of the enemy the American
flag had an auspicious triumph. The frigate Constitution,
commanded by Captain Hull, after a close and short engagement
completely disabled and captured a British frigate, gaining for that
officer and all on board a praise which can not be too liberally
bestowed, not merely for the victory actually achieved, but for that
prompt and cool exertion of commanding talents which, giving to
courage its highest character, and to the force applied its full effect,
proved that more could have been done in a contest requiring more.

Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war can not be
exempt, I lost no time after it was declared in conveying to the
British Government the terms on which its progress might be
arrested, without awaiting the delays of a formal and final pacification,
and our charge' d'affaires at London was at the same time authorized
to agree to an armistice founded upon them. These terms required
that the orders in council should be repealed as they affected the
United States, without a revival of blockades violating acknowledged
rules, and that there should be an immediate discharge of American
sea men from British ships, and a stop to impressment from American
ships, with an understanding that an exclusion of the sea men of
each nation from the ships of the other should be stipulated, and that
the armistice should be improved into a definitive and comprehensive
adjustment of depending controversies.

Although a repeal of the orders susceptible of explanations meeting
the views of this Government had taken place before this pacific
advance was communicated to that of Great Britain, the advance
was declined from an avowed repugnance to a suspension of the
practice of impressments during the armistice, and without any
intimation that the arrangement proposed WRT sea men would be
accepted. Whether the subsequent communications from this
Government, affording an occasion for reconsidering the subject on
the part of Great Britain, will be viewed in a more favorable light or
received in a more accommodating spirit remains to be known. It
would be unwise to relax our measures in any respect on a
presumption of such a result.

The documents from the Department of State which relate to this
subject will give a view also of the propositions for an armistice
which have been received here, one of them from the authorities at
Halifax and in Canada, the other from the British Government itself
through Admiral Warren, and of the grounds on which neither of them
could be accepted.

Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at my
last communications to you. Notwithstanding the authorized
expectations of an early as well as favorable issue to the
discussions on foot, these have been procrastinated to the latest
date. The only intervening occurrence meriting attention is the
promulgation of a French decree purporting to be a definitive repeal
of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This proceeding, although made the
ground of the repeal of the British orders in council, is rendered by
the time and manner of it liable to many objections.

The final communications from our special minister to Denmark
afford further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and of the
amicable disposition of the Danish Government. From Russia we
have the satisfaction to receive assurances of continued friendship,
and that it will not be affected by the rupture between the United
States and Great Britain. Sweden also professes sentiments
favorable to the subsisting harmony.

With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our affairs
remain on the ordinary footing. The consul-general residing with
that Regency has suddenly and without cause been banished,
together with all the American citizens found there. Whether this
was the transitory effect of capricious despotism or the first act of
predetermined hostility is not ascertained. Precautions were taken
by the consul on the latter supposition.

The Indian tribes not under foreign instigations remain at peace, and
receive the civilizing attentions which have proved so beneficial to
them.

With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war to which our
national faculties are adequate, the attention of Congress will be
particularly drawn to the insufficiency of existing provisions for
filling up the military establishment. Such is the happy condition of
our country, arising from the facility of subsistence and the high
wages for every species of occupation, that notwithstanding the
augmented inducements provided at the last session, a partial
success only has attended the recruiting service. The deficiency
has been necessarily supplied during the campaign by other than
regular troops, with all the inconveniences and expense incident to
them. The remedy lies in establishing more favorably for the private
soldier the proportion between his recompense and the term of his
enlistment, and it is a subject which can not too soon or too seriously
be taken into consideration.

The same insufficiency has been experienced in the provisions for
volunteers made by an act of the last session. The recompense for
the service required in this case is still less attractive than in the
other, and although patriotism alone has sent into the field some
valuable corps of that description, those alone who can afford the
sacrifice can be reasonably expected to yield to that impulse.

It will merit consideration also whether as auxiliary to the security
of our frontiers corps may not be advantageously organized with a
restriction of their services to particular districts convenient to
them, and whether the local and occasional services of mariners and
others in the sea port towns under a similar organization would not
be a provident addition to the means of their defense.

I recommend a provision for an increase of the general officers of
the Army, the deficiency of which has been illustrated by the # and
distance of separate commands which the course of the war and the
advantage of the service have required.

And I can not press too strongly on the earliest attention of the
Legislature the importance of the reorganization of the staff
establishment with a view to render more distinct and definite the
relations and responsibilities of its several departments. That there
is room for improvements which will materially promote both
economy and success in what appertains to the Army and the war is
equally inculcated by the examples of other countries and by the
experience of our own.

A revision of the militia laws for the purpose of rendering them more
systematic and better adapting them to emergencies of the war is at
this time particularly desirable.

Of the additional ships authorized to be fitted for service, two will be
shortly ready to sail, a third is under repair, and delay will be avoided in
the repair of the residue. Of the appropriations for the purchase of
materials for ship building, the greater part has been applied to that
object and the purchase will be continued with the balance.

The enterprising spirit which has characterized our naval force and its
success, both in restraining insults and depredations on our coasts and
in reprisals on the enemy, will not fail to recommend an
enlargement of it.

There being reason to believe that the act prohibiting the
acceptance of British licenses is not a sufficient guard against the
use of them, for purposes favorable to the interests and views of the
enemy, further provisions on that subject are highly important. Nor
is it less so that penal enactments should be provided for cases of
corrupt and perfidious intercourse with the enemy, not amounting to
treason nor yet embraced by any statutory provisions.

A considerable number of American vessels which were in England when
the revocation of the orders in council took place were laden with
British manufactures under an erroneous impression that the
non-importation act would immediately cease to operate, and have arrived
in the United States. It did not appear proper to exercise on
unforeseen cases of such magnitude the powers vested in the
Treasury Department to mitigate forfeitures without previously
affording to Congress an opportunity of making on the subject such
provision as they may think proper. In their decision they will
doubtless equally consult what is due to equitable considerations and
to the public interest.

The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
September last have exceeded $16.5M, which have been sufficient to
defray all the demands on the Treasury to that day, including a
necessary reimbursement of near $3M of the principal of the public
debt. In these receipts is included a sum of near $5.85M, received
on account of the loans authorized by the acts of the last session;
the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts to $11M, the
residue of which, being receivable subsequent to the 30th of
September last, will, together with the current revenue, enable us
to defray all the expenses of this year.

The duties on the late unexpected importations of British
manufactures will render the revenue of the ensuing year more
productive than could have been anticipated.

The situation of our country, fellow citizens, is not without its
difficulties, though it abounds in animating considerations, of which
the view here presented of our pecuniary resources is an example.
With more than one nation we have serious and unsettled
controversies, and with one, powerful in the means and habits of war, we
are at war. The spirit and strength of the nation are nevertheless
equal to the support of all its rights, and to carry it through all its
trials. They can be met in that confidence.

Above all, we have the inestimable consolation of knowing that the
war in which we are actually engaged is a war neither of ambition
nor of vain glory; that it is waged not in violation of the rights of
others, but in the maintenance of our own; that it was preceded by a
patience without example under wrongs accumulating without end,
and that it was finally not declared until every hope of averting it was
extinguished by the transfer of the British scepter into new hands
clinging to former councils, and until declarations were reiterated to
the last hour, through the British envoy here, that the hostile
edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime independence
would not be revoked; nay, that they could not be revoked without
violating the obligations of Great Britain to other powers, as well as
to her own interests.

To have shrunk under such circumstances from manly resistance
would have been a degradation blasting our best and proudest hopes;
it would have struck us from the high rank where the virtuous
struggles of our fathers had placed us, and have betrayed the
magnificent legacy which we hold in trust for future generations. It
would have acknowledged that on the element which forms three-fourth of
the globe we inhabit, and where all independent nations have equal and
common rights, the American people were not an independent
people, but colonists and vassals.

It was at this moment and with such an alternative that war was
chosen. The nation felt the necessity of it, and called for it. The
appeal was accordingly made, in a just cause, to the Just and
All-powerful Being who holds in His hand the chain of events and the
destiny of nations.

It remains only that, faithful to ourselves, entangled in no
connections with the views of other powers, and ever ready to accept
peace from the hand of justice, we prosecute the war with united
counsels and with the ample faculties of the nation until peace be so
obtained and
and as the only means under the Divine blessing of speedily obtaining it.